Happy 3rd of July and Welcome to Skilled in the Art. I’m Law.com IP reporter Scott Graham. Why not take a minute to catch up on the IP news of the day before you fire up the barbecue and start lighting fireworks? Today I’m writing about another reversal in hard-fought semiconductor patent litigation, and an apparently unprecedented IP ethics issue. As always you can email me thoughts and feedback and follow me on Twitter.
Judge Timothy Dyk, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Fairchild Wins Latest Round in Semiconductor War
You are no doubt aware of Oracle and Google‘s massive high-stakes IP trials over Java APIs, each of which has ended with the Federal Circuit sending them back for do-overs. Did you know there’s a semiconductor version of this litigation too?Power Integrations v. Fairchild Semiconductor has been tried twice in a San Francisco courtroom—though before Judge Maxine Chesney rather than Judge William Alsup—each time resulting in a nine-figure verdict.
